


Always

by everythingsace



Series: Thank God For Peter Parker [3]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Angst, Christmas Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Peter Parker Saves The Day, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, i love these two, my smol bean protecting my bigger smol bean as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 06:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9060982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingsace/pseuds/everythingsace
Summary: Tony Stark was always alone on Christmas, so why the hell was it fucking him up now?(Sorta inspired by "Last Christmas.")





	

**Author's Note:**

> I fucking made it! There's approximately two hours left of Christmas, but I fucking made it. I'm not late, shut up. (Whatever. Enjoy my beans.) (Also, despite several requests made for this series, Peter has not yet punched Cap. But I promise, it will happen.)

Tony Stark has spent Christmas alone since he was five years old.

Howard and Maria always had classy galas or parties that “Tony was too young for” in his mother’s words (though Tony figured Howard would use the word “annoying”), so he just stayed home. Jarvis would stay with Tony until Christmas Eve, but he had his own family to spend the actual day with.

At MIT, Rhodey offered him invitations year after year, but Tony had always declined. He would have hated to intrude, despite Rhodey’s constant reassurances that he wouldn’t. Instead, he stayed in their dorm, watching the snow fall as he sat alone.

During the following decades, he continued to sit on his own in his workshop. He had the bots, he had JARVIS… but he would really always just be on his own.

He hadn’t even been with Pepper long enough for  them to last until a Christmas,  not that he truly believed that Pepper would want to celebrate with him anyway…

Point is, Tony Stark was always alone on Christmas, so why the _hell_ was it fucking him up now?

* * *

 

_Tony couldn’t contain the laughter that was bubbling within his chest._

_“What… What are you doing?” he asked, his stomach aching from his cackles._

_“The idiot decided to use his boomerang arrows to try to decorate the tree,” Natasha said, shaking her head fondly as Clint struggled to untangle himself from the tinsel and garland._

_“It was a good idea!” the archer cried, though his argument was severely undermined by his inability to free himself from the grasps of the glittering garnishments._

_“You could have severely injured yourself,” Steve chided, but his voice had no heat in it._

_“But I_ didn’t,” _Clint said and Natasha rolled her eyes._

_“You sound like Stark.”_

_Tony squawked, holding his chest dramatically. “I’m hurt, Tasha.” He turned to Steve. “Cap, Ginger Snaps is hurting my feelings.”_

_“Don’t hurt poor Tony’s feelings, Nat,” Steve said, grinning as he finally walked over to help free Clint. “He hasn’t had his coffee yet.”_

_Tony nodded, pointing a finger in the spy’s direction. “Exactly. Who knows what will happen if I’m offended in my pre-coffee depression. Drastic things could occur.”_

_“Yeah, drastic things like the time you tried to make a working model of the Death Star and only succeeded in burning your eyebrows off?” Bruce offered, entering the room from the kitchen._

_“Or the time you tried to make a lightsaber and chopped an entire workstation in half?”_

_“Or the time you tried to make a real-life R2-D2 but he just destroyed the kitchen?”_

_“Okay, one, R2-D2 was a drunk creation, not a coffee-deprived one, and two… I really watch too much Star Wars,” Tony realized, staring off into space. He blinked and shook his head. “Wait, what were we even talking about?”_

_“Yeah, he needs coffee,” Bruce concluded, hiding an amused grin behind his cup of tea._

_“No worries, my genius friend, I am already brewing your favorite caffeinated beverage,” Thor’s voice called from the kitchen. Tony smiled before allowing himself to fall onto the sofa happily. That is, until he felt a sharp pain in his ass cheek._

_“Ow, fuck! What the hell?” he shrieked, springing up from the couch with lightning speed, rubbing his butt._

_“Aw, c’mon, man, you sat on my ornament!” Clint whined, rushing across the tinsel decorating the floor, now free from its clutches. He leaned down and picked something up, and Tony’s eyes followed his hands. He immediately clapped a hand over his forehead once he saw what the archer was holding._

_It was a three-inch-tall version of the archer himself. The small figure was in Clint’s normal mission gear, decked in the black and purple. The figure was also wearing sunglasses and aiming an arrow towards the ceiling._

_Tony immediately arched an eyebrow. “Really? A mini-you just pierced in arrow through my ass?”_

_“It’s very tempting, I can’t blame him,” Clint dismissed, cackling as he ducked Tony’s swat towards his head._

_Tony rolled his eyes before returning his gaze to the rest of the festive destruction across the room. As a mug of ambrosia was placed in his hands by the residential god, the giant tree in the corner of the room finally registered in his mind._

_“Wait. When the fuck did it turn Christmas?”_

_Natasha raised her eyebrows. “It’s the eleventh of December, Tony.”_

_Tony gaped. “Wait, what? Since fucking when?”_

_“Since 12:00 A.M. this morning, sir,” JARVIS said smugly, and Tony rolled his eyes and flipped him off, which was, of course, ignored._

_“You really need to start leaving your lab more, buddy,” Clint said, clapping his shoulder._

_Tony immediately grumbled, shrugging off the hand and taking a sip of his coffee. “Don’t call me ‘buddy,’ Katniss.”_

_“He is correct, Anthony,” Thor said, smiling. “We’ve greatly missed your presence.”_

_Not knowing what to say to that, Tony awkwardly shrugged. “Yeah, well, things to make, paperwork to sign… anyway, we celebrate Christmas now?”_

_Steve blinked in surprise. “Oh, sorry, we didn’t even think to consider that you might not celebrate it. Howard always did, and I just figured-”_

_Tony shook his head, waving Steve off. “No, no, it’s not that. I mean, I am an atheist, but that’s not… I don’t know. Just not used to really celebrating it.”_

_Clint shrugged before grinning, throwing his arm around Tony’s shoulders. “Well, come on, man, get festive! I found the_ best _decorations. I bought, like, six black Santas from some doped up guy in a truck. This is gonna be the best- and stupidest- Christmas ever.”_

* * *

 

Tony stared blankly at the photo hovering in front of him.

It was taken two weeks after that moment. It showed the team all in the common room, all sitting amongst the discarded wrapping paper strewn across the room. They were all wearing absolutely horrible sweaters. Steve’s literally had antlers sticking out of the front, which were narrowly avoiding poking Clint in the eye as they wrestled over a cookie. Natasha was lounging comfortably on the sofa with her legs propped on Thor’s lap, who was paying close attention to a Christmas movie- Tony couldn’t remember what they’d been watching. Bruce was sitting in his armchair, sipping hot chocolate instead of tea for once, wearing a Christmas sweater Clint had found that had dancing Hulks all across it. Then, there was the engineer himself, wrapped in a blanket, his mouth open as loudly judged Steve and Clint’s wrestling match, his own mug of hot chocolate in his hands.

Tony swallowed, batting away the image.

Once upon a time, and all that.

He turned around and his heart tumbled as he saw Dum-E wearing his favorite Santa hat (it had a jingle bell) and trying to hang an empty stocking on the wall that held the last of the (old) Avengers’ gear. A bow upgrade that was never tested, widow bites that were never used, that fucking shield.

Tony sighed before walking over to Dum-E. He took the stocking from the bot’s claw and carefully pinned it to the wall. Dum-E let out a high shrill, rolling around excitedly. Tony allowed a small smile, patting the bot affectionately as he rolled past.

Sighing, the engineer stepped back from the wall. He would absolutely love to throw everything on it out the window, but the windows in the workshop didn’t open, and even if they did, he knows he wouldn’t actually be able to do it.

He hated that he missed them.

He would love to call Steve, tell him to go fuck himself, tell him the whole team can go fuck themselves, but the truth was and would always remain that he missed them desperately. He hated being alone. He was fucking tired of being alone, and now that he’d finally had a taste of what he’d been missing for so many years, it was breaking him.

He wanted to be unable to escape the scent of gingerbread. He wanted to be sick of hearing Clint screech Mariah Carey at the top of his lungs. He wanted to groan as they watched _Elf_ for the fifth time. He wanted to complain about the fireplace being too warm. He wanted to whine about Steve taking a dreadfully long time to carefully unwrap each of his presents. He wanted to chide Bruce for teaching Dum-E how to chime Jingle Bells.

He wanted it all so _badly,_ but they were gone.

They were gone, and they weren’t coming back.

He’s just alone again.

Chirping brightly, Butterfingers rolled over and began poking Tony.

Tony raised his eyebrows. “What?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing as the bot just continued to nudge him.

Butterfingers gently prodded him, and it took Tony a moment to realize that the robot was trying to lead him to the couch.

“Why?” he asked, but walked with the bot before falling onto the soft cushions.

“I believe Butterfingers is hinting for you to get some rest, boss,” FRIDAY said.

Tony raised his eyebrows and sat up, only to be poked sharply in the ribs by Butterfingers. “Jesus! Ow, okay, fine,” he said, lying back down. “I don’t need to sleep, though.”

“You haven’t slept in three days, boss,” FRIDAY argued. “And it’s Christmas Eve.” Then, in a joking tone: “And you know Santa won’t come if you’re awake.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I don’t think Santa’s ever coming, Fri, but I appreciate the sentiment,” he said, rolling onto his side. FRIDAY simply gave her version of a hum, before turning down the lights.

Tony closed his eyes and tried not to dream about celebrating with a family.

* * *

Tony was surprised to see daylight when he woke. He must have slept at least five hours, and uninterrupted by nightmares? It’s a Christmas miracle.

Groaning and rolling over, Tony rubbed his eye, squinting at the ceiling. “Fri, do we have any coffee down here?”

“None, boss, ran out yesterday. There’s some on the common floor, though.”

Oh, yay, the common floor that had been completely decked out by Peter, Vision, Rhodey, the Bartons… who were all not here. Vision was on a mission, and the rest were celebrating with their own families.

Sighing, Tony climbed to his feet. “Okay, fine,” he mumbled, making his way to the elevator. Dum-E happily rolled alongside him, twirling around so the bell on his hat chimed loudly. Tony winced, but he gave the bot a tight smile. Little guy was just excited.

The elevators slid shut behind Tony and Dum-E, and the bot started chirping Jingle Bells  to his circuitry’s content. He began bumping into Tony repeatedly, the bot’s version of a hug. Swallowing around the lump in his throat, Tony gave the bot a smile and rubbed his claw. “Thanks, buddy,” he said, his voice wet.

He quickly cleared his throat, shaking his head. Once the doors opened, he kept his head down as he immediately walked to the kitchen. Dum-E continued to sing but entered the living room, where the Christmas tree Rhodey and Vision had found resided. Dum-E loved it and was always trying to hang everything he could possibly find. It was kind of adorable, but right now, it just made Tony’s chest hurt.

Dum-E started whistling even louder, and Tony shut his eyes, rubbing his forehead. He was glad the bot enjoyed the holiday, he was, but he just wished Bruce was humming the tune, too.

Because FRIDAY was a saint, she’d already started brewing his coffee. He mouthed a small _thank you_ , leaning against the counter. He shut his eyes and listened to Dum-E’s singing. It really was adorable. If he just didn’t think of Bruce when he did it…

Wait. What the hell was that bot singing now?

Grabbing his now-finished coffee, Tony hurried after Dum-E. Who the hell taught him _Joy To The World?_

He nearly had a fucking heart attack when he entered the room.

“Merry Christmas!”

Tony’s jaw dropped, looking across the smiling faces in front of him. Peter, May, Rhodey, Vision, Laura, Lila, Cooper, Nathaniel, and-

“Merry Christmas, Tony,” Pepper said, grinning. She stood up and hurried over to him, and Tony didn’t even move as she wrapped her arms around him. His arms remained pinned to his side as she gave him a peck on the cheek. As she stepped back, he stared blankly at her, and Rhodey began laughing.

“I think you broke him,” he said.

“You’re... “ Tony finally broke his gaze from Pepper and looked at the rest of the people filling his living space. “How…?”

“Peter realized that you didn’t have any plans for Christmas,” May said, standing up and smiling. “So he decided to organize a little something.”

“A _little?_ ” Tony repeated, his eyes wide as they roamed through everything in the room. All these people… they all looked so happy to be there. Actually happy to be _there_ , with _him._ “Pete, this… this is…” He was not going to cry. He was _not_ going to cry.

Luckily, Peter saved him. “C’mon, Mr. Stark. It’s not Christmas without presents.”

“What?” Tony asked, looking over to the tree, and _oh._

There were mountains of presents underneath the towering evergreen. Paper bags and badly wrapped boxes littered the surrounding floor, lying against and across each other haphazardly.

Tony looked back at Peter. “But… I don’t…”

His surrounding visitors all rolled their eyes (with the exception of Nathaniel, but seriously: even Lila and Cooper). “Come _on,”_ Peter said, standing up and dragging Tony over to one of the couches. Tony was shoved between Rhodey and Peter, and Rhodey’s arm was immediately around his shoulders.

“Why didn’t you tell me Vision was going on a mission?” Rhodey asked. “I never would have left if I’d known.”

“I…” Tony started, before narrowing his eyes. “Wait, why _aren’t_ you on your mission?” he asked, looking at the android.

“Peter called me,” Vision said, “I’d forgotten it was Christmas, so I wrapped up the mission early.” He paused. “The pun was unintended.”

“ _Pun-_ intended, _”_ Peter said, and May took the liberty of smacking the teenager in the shoulder.

“You’re an idiot,” Rhodey said fondly, squeezing Tony’s shoulders. Tony shrugged, melting into Rhodey’s hold. He watched as Lila and Cooper began picking up presents, checking the labels, and setting them at people’s feet. Tony immediately straightened. “Wait, I didn’t get anyth-”

“Oh, shut up, you give us stuff all the time,” Laura said, shaking her head. She took a hefty-looking box from Lila, before giving Tony a raised eyebrow. “You’ve given us all floors here, and you’ve given us too many gifts to count, for no reason at all. You have absolutely no need to get anyone anything.”

“For at least, like, two years. Until I get my license, I mean,” Peter added, earning another smack from his aunt.

“But-”

Cooper shut him up by stuffing a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. Tony blinked, looking around to see _where_ the cookie had come from, but everyone was just laughing. He stared at Cooper for a moment, who glared at him.

Tony carefully removed the cookie from his mouth. “Why?” he said slowly.

“Because. Now shut up.” With that, Cooper plopped down next to his mom.

Tony looked at Laura, who was biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. He saw most of everyone else was doing the same. Sighing, he just took another bite of the cookie. Cooper nodded, satisfied.

Lila dropped a bag into Tony’s lap before sitting down next to her brother. Tony stared at her, and the girl rolled her eyes dramatically. “ _Open_ it. You get to go first.”

Tony looked between her and everyone else in the room, and Pepper sighed, shaking her head. “Come on, Tony. Open it!”

Tony let out a flustered sigh, checking the label on the bag. It was from Peter and May. He gave another cautious glance around, but began untying the top of the bag once Rhodey flicked him in the ear. “Jeez, okay, okay!” He pulled open the bag to reveal a shit-ton of cookies. Tony looked up at Peter, then to May, and both the Parkers were smiling brightly. Tony looked back at the cookies. It looked like there were sugar, gingerbread, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip… He looked at them again, speechless. “Did you… did you guys _make_ these?”

Peter nodded, grinning. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I helped make them so they’re edible.” He was smacked once again, and Tony gave a nervous laugh.

“You- you guys didn’t need to-”

“Oh, my _God,_ shut _up,”_ Peter groaned. “We _wanted_ to, you idiot.”

Tony stared at Peter for a moment, and May clicked her tongue. “Honestly, Tony, it’s like you’ve never celebrated Christmas before.”

Everyone stared at him as Tony helplessly stared at the floor. He had, once, but that… that was a dream. That just seemed like a dream now, now that everyone involved hated him. He hadn’t heard from Bruce or Thor since Ultron, Natasha was hiding, and the rest were in Wakanda (not that he was supposed to know), actively despising him for everything he’d ever done. Since that one Christmas, that… he knew that Christmas just wasn’t for him. He was never meant to enjoy it, and clearly if he ever did, there were consequences.

“Oh, _Tony,”_ Pepper whispered tearfully, and Tony blinked rapidly, looking up to see everyone still watching him. Rhodey, Vision, Peter, May, Pepper, and Laura (and somehow, even Dum-E) all looked sad, while Cooper and Lila looked confused.

Tony tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. He stumbled out a quiet, “I…” before dropping his gaze back to the ground. Dum-E chirred sadly, rolling back and forth. Tony felt Rhodey’s hold on him tighten. The bag in his hands fell from his grip suddenly, which he realized were shaking.

Letting out a shuddering sigh, he placed his head in his hands. _Stop it. Fucking stop it. Just…_

His thoughts slowed when he heard soft thuds on the floor. He slowly slipped his hands down, and there was Nathaniel, waddling towards him. Everything seemed silent around Tony, even Dum-E. Nathaniel slowly and very carefully crouched down, and picked up the fallen bag of cookies with his tiny hands. Tony stared as the toddler straightened his legs and held out the gift to Tony.

Tears filling his eyes, the engineer took the present with one hand and cupped the other behind the little boy’s head. “Thank you,” he whispered, and the boy tilted his head before grinning brightly, giggling. Tony let out a small and watery laugh. “Thank you,” he repeated, as the others finally let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

 

A couple hours later, Peter found Tony sitting in the hall.

“Tony?” he asked cautiously, sitting down next to the genius. The engineer had seemed pretty okay during the whole present exchange, excluding his small breakdown at the beginning. “Are you okay?”

Tony lifted his head, and Peter saw that the man’s eyes were red and puffy. He tensed, but relaxed again as Tony whispered, “Thank you.” He turned his head to face Peter. “Thank you, Pete. This… This was amazing. I can’t…”

Peter sighed, before sitting down across from Tony. “It was no problem. I wasn’t just gonna leave you alone on Christmas.”

Tony sighed, shaking his head. “But…”

“Rhodey said that you’ve always denied his invitations to join his family for Christmas. Vision and FRIDAY both confirmed that you always spent Christmas alone when you were a kid. FRIDAY said that the only time you’ve ever spent Christmas with someone was with the old Avengers two years ago.”

Tony shrugged.

Peter shook his head, looking at Tony helplessly. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? I only found out that you were going to be alone because I asked FRIDAY if you were going to be around for me to deliver a present. When she said that you didn’t have any plans…” He paused, letting his gaze drop before flicking it back to Tony. “Your our _family,_ Tony. Why don’t you ever realize that?”

Tony’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. _Because the last time he had a family, he was wrong. He’d never been a part of it and he was just kidding himself._

Peter leaned forward and glared at Tony pointedly, refusing to be brushed off. “You’re a part of this family, Tony. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, _we will not let this go._ You matter too much and you deserve so much more. You are a part of this family and if I have to say it every day for the rest of my life for you to believe it, I will, because you need to understand. If you’re alone, you can always call one of us. _Always._ As soon as I asked everyone, they were all immediately on board with this idea. You always deserve to have a family with you, and we will always be happy to be that family. We love you, Tony. Get that through your stupid head.”

Tony swallowed, before finally beginning to nod. “I… yeah. Yeah. Okay.”

Peter smiled and nodded. “Good.” He climbed to his feet and held out a hand. Tony took it and pulled himself up, only to immediately be pulled into a quick hug. He awkwardly patted Peter’s shoulder (because he honestly still sucked at hugs). Peter let him go and squeezed his shoulder. “Merry Christmas, Tony,” he said.

Tony grinned. “Merry Christmas, Peter.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave kudos and comments! Have a lovely holiday season/winter break! (If you notice any mistakes/typos, please let me know!)


End file.
